Pages

Tuesday, 30 May 2017

Suicide bomber kills 16 in Baghdad ice cream parlour

A suicide bomber has killed at least 16 people at an ice cream parlour in Iraq's capital Baghdad.

The attacker detonated a parked vehicle laden with explosives outside the shop in the early hours of Tuesday.

Islamic State said it carried out the atrocity in the central Karrada district of the city, which also wounded 75 people.

Hours later a second car bomb exploded near one of Baghdad's main bridges, killing 11 people.

Videos of the first attack posted on social media show a fire raging outside the Al-Faqma ice cream shop as bodies and rubble lie in the street.

Along with bloodied people crying for help, one young girl wearing a ribbon and bow in her hair wanders the scene dazed.

One photo showed cups of ice cream scattered on the blood-stained ground in the busy neighbourhood.

The blast happened just days into the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when Iraqis often stay out late after breaking their fast at sunset.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency claimed the attack targeted Shia Muslims, a majority in Iraq, who the terror group consider to be heretics.

Brett McGurk, an envoy to the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, posted on Twitter:

"ISIS terrorists tonight in Baghdad target children and families enjoying time together at an ice cream shop. We stand with Iraq against this evil."

Ramadan has often seen an increase in violence in Iraq, while military officials have said they expect a surge in terror attacks as they continue efforts to drive IS out of the country's second city Mosul.

Iraqi forces backed by coalition airstrikes are in the eighth month of a campaign to retake the last jihadist strongholds in the city.